The Last Ride
by Urei Miura
Summary: Healing a broken heart. Moving on. Searching for love and then finding it. Touma finds love when he least expect it. Mary Sue Sasaki Eiko. (Futaba chose Kou. Uchimiya X Yuuri. Shuuko X Kominato, Touma X OC.)
1. Absolute Free Fall

**Ao Haru Ride (****アオハライド****) is a manga series written and illustrated by Sakisaka Io.**

* * *

**I**

**.::. - Absolute Free Fall - .::.**

She loves him…

The sudden realization of the intensity and depth of the feeling immobilized her. It was an absolute free fall deep into the abyss of emotion. And there was no way to stop. She just keeps on falling and falling… it scared her.

And excite her.

It was a first. The feeling was foreign and strange. It was overwhelming. It consumed her whole being. It was strong. Heavy. And in need for something she can't quite name yet. But at the same time, the feeling was sweet and comforting. It makes her happy.

She smiled. The feeling was so new to her; she wanted to find out all about it.

_Why?_

She once read that poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. She doesn't know if this is true. But one thing is certain:

She didn't plan on falling in love. It was the last thing on her mind.

Yet it happened.

Without her knowing.

Realizing only when it's all too late.

_When did it happen? Where? How?_

She can't tell.

Maybe it was when she first noticed him. Sensei called him to read a passage from the book. He was startled. He stood abruptly and fidgeted. His gestures told the whole class that he was not listening at all. He helplessly looked at one of his friends who whispered the part he should read. But it was the wrong passage. Sensei sighed. The whole class laughed at him. And his whole face visibly turned red.

She was astonished at the sight. He was the first guy she knew whose face easily turn tomato red for the whole world to see.

It was the same when he volunteered to be the replacement of the male class representative. He raised his right hand confidently but his face betrayed him. He was blushing profusely. She wasn't sure if it was his character to be a diligent student, but she sure appreciated his actions.

Or maybe it was the time she noticed that he wore an earring. The earring looks like a finger ring - round and made of silver. It's small enough to fit his earlobe. Later on, she realized that it was actually a piercing. It gave her the impression the he was not who seems to be. Maybe he's shallow, or deep – depending on how you interpret guys who pierced themselves.

Maybe she fell in love with him when he sang and played with his friends during the cultural festival. He wasn't the main vocalist but the way his voice synchronized with the lead vocal was soothing and nice. The way he sang the song was from his heart, his face determined to get the message across to the person he wanted to reach. The intensity of the way he played the bass guitar with his fingers - as if his sole reason is to impress not everyone but a certain someone. She could listen and watch him do that all day, if given the chance.

Or maybe it was the time when he was in love.

He was in love with a pretty girl from another class. She saw how he took care of her.

The way he talks to her.

The way he holds her.

The way he moves around her.

The way he looks at her.

The way he smiles at her…

All these things she unconsciously noticed.

It all showed in his face. He didn't even bother to hide them. The emotions were honest and bare. It was genuine. It was sincere. They called to her.

Maybe…

She fell in love with him the moment he fell in love with someone else.

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**A/N: I am completely in love with Touma, I just have to write a love story which he actually deserves., haha. Hope you like it.(****ღ****ღ****)**

**This will just be a short story though.**

**Read and Review.**


	2. Miracles and Impressions

**II**

**.::. – Miracles and Impressions - .::.**

**Just After the Summer Break, Second Year.**

She started having problems when Moriyama Kyou, the male representative, transferred to another school just this summer. The workloads for Class 5 weren't designed to be shouldered by one person - much more of a girl. Even though she is the female representative, Sasaki Eiko isn't a martyr to carry all of the responsibilities for an entire class especially when the school's Cultural Festival is coming up.

The idea of strangling Moriyama-san to his death started to have an appeal to her. After all, he wasn't exactly an amiable person to begin with.

Eiko looked at the papers on her desk. Orange, yellow and red colors played on the rough surface of the papers welcoming her to dusk. Frowning, she looked at her wrist watch. 6:07pm - too late to be staying inside the classroom.

Or even in the school.

But she has no choice.

She has to stay up late just so she could finish the class records. And she has to finish it today.

That's one of the things she was tasked to do – alone, among other things. Before the class records, she was in-charge of assigning who were to clean for the day and has to supervise the whole process. Before that, she had to carry the journals submitted by her classmates and bring all of them to the faculty room. Before that she had to clean the blackboard in between classes and she wasn't exactly a chalk-dust person. Although, leading the _aisatsu_ at the beginning and end of class isn't a tedious task for her, Eiko was afraid that it will take a toll on her in the future.

Yes, she can do all these things but if these continue to be single-handled by her, she is going to collapse from exhaustion.

It's either Okita-sensei, their homeroom teacher, will elect a new male representative or she has to force her classmates to share the responsibilities. The latter is obviously out of the question since her classmates weren't exactly the diligent type of students who will be thrilled to do representative duties. She knows her classmates, every one of them, down to the last publicly available detail. Delegation would likely lead Class 5 into mutiny.

Rattling sounds interrupted her thoughts. She looked at where the sounds came from. The door opened to show Takegawa Umi in gym clothes, a grin plastered on her exhausted pretty face. Her best friend was clearly finished with her volleyball practice.

"Ha! I knew you might still be here!" She said, still with much energy to spare.

Eiko pouted. "Going home early is impossible for me now, it seems."

"I told you, Moriyama-san transferring to another school will be a problem." Umi said, giving her the 'I-told-you-so' look.

Eiko scoffed. "At that time, the only thing I'm concerned at was my happiness that the population of obnoxious people in this school was lessened by one."

"Sadly, you have to suffer for that happiness." Umi stated plainly.

"I wouldn't if a classmate, like you for example, would help me." Eiko said emphasizing the word 'you'.

"Over my dead body."

Eiko gave her a face and Umi laughed.

"Tell Okita-sensei that you can't do the responsibilities alone. She might grant you some higher power to exercise." Umi suggested.

"I'm going to tell her tomorrow." Eiko said determinedly.

"Let us hope that someone would actually be willing to be the male representative."

"That, my dear friend, would be a miracle."

…

But a miracle did happen.

The next day, Okita-sensei agreed to make one of her male classmates replace Moriyama-san.

"If no one volunteers, then I have no choice but to assign someone." Okita-sensei said, knowing for the fact that she will do the latter.

During the homeroom, she asked for volunteers. Eiko wasn't expecting someone to raise his hand, but well, someone did. Everyone turned their attention to the boy who made a miracle possible. Umi, who was seating in front of her, immediately turned around and gave Eiko, yet again, another 'I-told-you-so look'. Eiko rolled her eyes.

Shocked at first, and then curious, Eiko eyed the miracle boy. Kikuchi Touma, seat #7, doesn't exactly look like a diligent student to her. His hair is blonde. He has an earring. His uniform, even though it's the same like every male uniform, looks fashionable when he wears it. He is also friends with Uchimiya Haruhiko (- Haru to Eiko since he is her neighbor ever since fourth grade) and Tachibana Kisyun which would make him one of the cool-easy-going-type of guys who could only be a representative in shojou mangas but never in real life. The three of them, as far as she knows, formed a band.

"Uhm…" Okita-sensei looked at the class records. "Kikuchi Touma-san… you're volunteering to be a class representative?"

Clearly, Okita-sensei wasn't expecting this. Just like everybody else.

"_Hai!_" Kikuchi Touma-san said with coyness but full of determination nonetheless. He received sound of awes from their classmates. His face turned so red, Eiko's eyes can't believe it. Cool guys never blushed but he did.

"Well, that's good! Please ask Sasaki-san for the duties Manabu-san left behind so she could run everything down to you and you could start the representative duties ASAP." Okita-sensei said.

Kikuchi-san nodded.

"That's all for homeroom." Okita-sensei said, dismissing the class. As soon as Sensei left the room, everyone immediately stood, got their bags and dashed out of the classroom.

Eiko was about to walk toward Kikuchi-san to give him the outline and schedule of the male class representative duties which she gave an effort to do last night, but the miracle boy beat her to it. Kikuchi-san stood in front of her.

"Uhm, Sasaki-san…" He said looking down, still blushing.

Up close, Kikuchi-san is actually good-looking. He's also tall. She supposed he would be a better partner than Manabu-san – and that would be a humongous plus points added to him. But Eiko is more concerned, or interested to be exact, of his blushing stunts.

In fact, she admired it. He is the only one she knew who could visibly show such feelings.

"Hello, Kikuchi-san. Thank you for volunteering. You don't know how much that would help me." She said. Kikuchi-san flinched. Not exactly the reaction Eiko was expecting.

"Uhm, well…" He started uncomfortably. And then an arm suddenly went around him. Tachibana-san and Haru were both smiling at her widely while they gave Kikuchi-san a manly arm-wrapping.

"Eiko, please be gentle to Touma." Haru said.

"We'll be entrusting him to you." Tachibana-san said.

Kikuchi-san's face couldn't be redder, then. He elbowed the two of his friends who both feigned pain.

Eiko smiled. "Don't worry, he is in good hands."

Kikuchi-san blushed further, if that could even be possible.

…

"Huh? What could I say about Eiko?" Uchimiya looked at Touma. The three of them were at the roof top where they usually spend their free time. Well, for Touma, starting from now on, the little free time he could spare.

"She's the prettiest girl in class." Uchimiya said.

"She's also the smartest." Tachibana added.

"That's not what I meant." Touma said exasperatedly. "I feel bad deceiving her. She thinks I'm doing this because I'm a diligent student." Guilt was gnawing at him, and it wasn't exactly a good feeling.

"So, you're asking me if she'll take your impure motive well?" Uchimiya teased.

"Come to think of it, Uchimiya and Sasaki-san seems close." Tachibana remarked.

"_Ma,_ well, since we're neighbors and all." Uchimiya said nonchalantly.

"Hm, what could I say about her?" He repeated, pondering about the question. "It doesn't really matter what she thinks, right?"

"But I feel bad!" Touma repeated.

Uchimiya sighed. "To be honest, I know she doesn't think you to be a diligent student at all."

"Why is that?" Touma asked.

"Since you are hanging out with me and Tachibana-kun…"

"Well, that is true." Tachibana said. "She doesn't think highly of us, does she?"

The look on Touma's face made Uchimiya laugh. "Eiko is serious about almost everything but she is a good person – and fun if she wants to. Touma can tell her that he just volunteered to get close with the girl he likes and Eiko wouldn't take that against him as long as he can do his responsibility properly. Don't worry. In fact, she'll appreciate your honesty."

"Uwah, you know her so well." Tachibana commented.

"We have a long history, but that's another story." Uchimiya said, dismissing the subject before Touma and Tachibana could ask any more questions.

"Since you say that it's ok to tell her the truth, then I'm going to tell her the truth." Touma said with conviction.

"I don't think telling her your real intentions is any different with not telling her." Uchimiya said.

"But _gambatte_." Tachibana said to Touma in support.

…

It's easier said than done though. It took Touma two days to actually confess his real intentions to Sasaki Eiko. The two of them were seating across each other, a desk in between them, finishing the class journals together. The class has long ended and the only remaining people in the classroom were the two of them.

"So you volunteered to get close with the girl you like." Sasaki-san plainly stated, repeating what he has just confessed. Touma had to wince to the truth in it.

"Uhm, yeah." He said, looking at the journals, instead of her. "I'm sorry."

He bet his face was flustered again. He couldn't look at her. She must think his reason was ridiculous and hormonal. But well he must do what he's supposed to do. He liked Futaba-chan and he must make a move to prove it - in hopes that she might return his feelings too. One can hope, right?

"Ehh…" Sasaki-san mused.

There was an awkward pause and then Touma heard her giggle.

"Sasaki-san?" Touma asked, this time looking at her. It was the first time he saw the class representative laughed like that. It literally transformed her face to another level. Touma can't believe a girl like her actually exist in their class. She's more or less the epitome of a perfect student. Even more that she is Uchi's childhood friend. That lucky guy!

"You don't need to tell me that, really." She said, shaking her head. "I can't believe you told me."

"Well, I feel bad that you have the wrong impression of me – even though it's a positive one. Uchi said it doesn't matter if I tell you or not since you don't think I'm diligent anyways."

"Haru is right." She said straightforwardly. "But you being diligent aren't an issue at all. I need someone who would help me with the class duties. And everyone is actually capable of helping me – diligent or not. Well, I suppose it's thanks to that motive that I finally have a replacement for Moriyama-san. Don't worry about it."

Touma looked at the journals again, but Sasaki-san leaned forward and looked at him intently. Her cinnamon-brown eyes were probing him deep into his soul.

"Forgive my curiosity, but who is this girl you like?" She asked.

"Oh, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She added hastily.

"Uhm, I don't know if you know her. Her name is Yoshioka Futaba." Touma said, not at all uncomfortable telling her the truth. Strangely enough, he feels he could tell her anything.

"Wah! You actually told me." Sasaki-san said wide-eyed, leaning back to get a good look at him.

Touma couldn't turn red more.

"You're teasing me!" He accused.

"Hehe, don't worry. I don't know Yoshioka-san and your secret is safe with me. In fact, I'll be supporting you!" Sasaki-san grinned.

"Thanks, I guess." Touma said, smiling back.


End file.
